Notes from our first up-close look at Chip Kelly's practices

Eagles OTAs yesterday were an experience, for sure. It was almost like a rock concert, set to football. There were times where I kind of felt like getting up and dancing. Seriously. Here are my random notes from the day:

• In my short time covering the NFL, I've seen six different teams run practices. They are the Eagles, Giants, Redskins, Lions, Vikings, and Raiders. The last four were at the Senior Bowl, where the idea is to give teams a chance to evaluate players as opposed to making them get better and a learn a new scheme. Still, I've never seen a practice anywhere near as quick-flowing and organized as the one Chip Kelly ran yesterday. Every player stayed active for the entire duration of the hour and 45 minutes, and it was an enormous difference from the practices Andy Reid formerly ran during his 14 year tenure with the team.

One of my favorite players to watch during training camp up at Lehigh was Jon Dorenbos. I once watched him squirt punter Chas Henry in his pants with a water bottle so it looked like he peed himself. On another occasion, I watched him say that he was going to spit his gum out, and try to kick it out of mid-air into a garbage can about 20 yards away. (He almost made it). These were things he did during practice, because he's the long snapper, and really, how can they help out during practice?

At Giants practices, Tom Coughlin keeps his specialists busy. For example, kicker Lawrence Tynes throws passes to linebackers and defensive backs during their drills. Remember when Chas Henry noodle-armed a ball on the fake punt try against Chicago a couple years ago? If he had gotten reps throughout the season during practice, I wonder if the result of that play (and perhaps the game) would have been different.

At Chip Kelly's practices, everyone stays active. The specialists don't have time to stand around, occasionally stretch, and kick a few balls around. They keep moving. 5th QB G.J. Kinne even filled in as a safety at one point.

• The play calling is going to be different than what you are used to seeing at the NFL level. Multiple coaches are sending in signals, some of which aren't all that different from this:

Originally, I had thought that several coaches were sending in signals, and only one of them counted, with the others being decoys. However, according to Sheil Kapadia of Philly Mag, each of the coaches relaying signals are sending in different things:

Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur stands on the sideline with a walkie-talkie and calls the play into the quarterback’s helmet. But before each snap, every offensive player looks over to the sideline. An offensive assistant plays the role of third-base coach and runs through a variety of hand signals that relay personnel grouping and formation.

• The Eagles WRs did blocking drills. Under Andy Reid, WRs would block during practice, but I don't think I ever saw an actual dedicated blocking drill. Keep an eye on Arrelious Benn this season, who is a player that excels in blocking. Don't be surprised to see him take some playing time away from the other WRs.

• I love how special teams are being mixed in regularly during practices. A few months ago, special teams coordinator Dave Fipp talked about how he wanted special teams to be incorporated into the offense:

On Sunday, the game is played… Offense, special teams, defense, special teams… so I fully intend to incorporate special teams into the practice (throughout the practice). I firmly believe that you need to practice special teams the same way you play it on Sunday, in between your offensive and defensive plays.

The Vikings' coaching staff coached the "North Team" at the Senior Bowl last year, and they did something very subtle. The first thing they worked on was special teams.

Why? Well, special teams are boring to the average player. At the beginning of practice, players are alert and fresh. The "boring stuff" is more likely to sink in if it's worked on before anything else. The New York Giants do the same thing in training camp. In fact the Giants will often run special teams first, then run some offense vs defense drills, and go right back to special teams. A premium is put on special teams work.

The Eagles, on the other hand, often practiced special teams last. Temperatures got up around triple digits at Lehigh University during the dog days of August. After an hour and a half of hitting in severe heat, you have to wonder how much the Eagles players were really retaining when they're practicing "the boring stuff" last. I wonder if that approach led to ridiculousness like this:

• I didn't realize this until they were right in front of me, but both punters, Donnie Jones and Brad Wing, are left-footed punters. I wonder if that's more than just a coincidence.

• If you're intereted in the actual plays being run during practice, a lot of them can be found here. I recognized quite a few things that can found on those videos.

• DeSean Jackson fielded quite a few punts.

• WR Ifeanyi Momah is tall.

• Here's a very short video I shot of practice, just to give you an idea of the music:

Bo Wulf of Philadelphia Eagles.com has the entire practice playlist here. All the songs, like Chip's practices, were fast-paced. Some of the songs early in the practice had an eagle screech added in. My favorite stretch was when they went from "Crazy Train" to "Hungry Like the Wolf." It was like "afternoon strip club" music... or so I'm told.

• When the WRs and TEs were running the "route tree," they would all have a pass thrown to them by one of the 5 QBs simultaneously. That's 5 times the reps for both the QBs and receivers. It's efficient, and frankly, there's no added level of difficulty in doing it that way. Pictures were not allowed during practice, but here's what the 5 QBs throwing passes simultaneously looked like: